The year 2018 was significant for the mobile-only digital payment ecosystem, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The amount transacted through the UPI platform witnessed a growth of more than 10 times, with the number of transactions increasing eight times in 2018 over the previous year.
The end of 2018 witnessed another milestone, with the amount transacted on the UPI platform crossing the ₹1 lakh crore-mark in December.
In August 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the UPI as a mobile-only digital payment platform for the seamless movement of money using a two-factor authentication process.
Users can transfer money either by using the mobile number or the virtual payment address.
The amount transacted on the UPI platform, which stood at ₹3.1 crore in August 2016, increased to ₹1.02 lakh crore in December 2018.
A comparison of the amount transacted on the platform for two calendar years shows that the ecosystem got a huge boost in 2018.
In fact, the amount that was transacted on this platform during the whole of 2017 was just above the figures of August 2018. The UPI platform transacted ₹56,670 crore during the calendar year 2017, and in August 2018 alone, the amount transacted was ₹54,212.26 crore.
In fact, the amount transacted in the whole of 2018 stood at ₹5.79 lakh crore. Mahabaleshwara MS, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Bank, told BusinessLine that the numbers speak a lot about the popularity of the platform. “The acceptability of the digital transactions, convenience, safety, and a user-friendly platform are the reasons for this,” he said.
December transactions
The number of transactions on UPI also saw a huge jump in 2018. Around 42.67 crore of transactions were carried out during the whole of 2017. This number was 370.8 crore in 2018, with the total number of transactions in December 2018 alone reaching 62.01 crore.
Mahabaleshwara said these transactions have taken place across all banks and are not confined to a few banks.
Interestingly, the number of banks live on the UPI network went up from 21 in August 2016 to 68 in December 2017. By the end of December 2018, as many as 129 banks went live.
An increasing number of e-tailers, utility service providers, and merchant establishments are accepting money on the platform.